Ohio State, UConn bust in

Mark Fainaru-Wada, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, March 21, 1999

PHOENIX - There was a brief spell Saturday afternoon when Jim Calhoun saw the Final Four slipping away yet again, a minute's time when he actually entertained the notion that something otherworldly was conspiring against Connecticut.

He saw a prayer of a 3-pointer fall through the net for a team on a magical ride and then he watched, a touch horrified and a hint amazed, as his sure-handed point guard let a pass slip right through his mitts.

"I started to think this was a fate thing," Calhoun said. "That maybe we were just fated not to be (in the Final Four)."

But the moment passed, the ground finally opened up to swallow NCAA Tournament mascot Gonzaga, and Calhoun / Connecticut, at long, long last, claimed one of the coveted four seats at college basketball's best table. The Huskies will be off to St. Petersburg next week and a Final Four meeting with Ohio State because, after 39 minutes and 54 seconds, they managed to shake Gonzaga and steal away with a 67-62 victory in the West Regional final at America West Arena.

Calhoun came into the game with 301 victories in 13 seasons of building the Huskies into a national power, but the label of Greatest Never to Reach a Final Four was always attached like a "Kick Me" sign.

"I told (Calhoun) after the game that I wanted him to go into the Hall of Fame the right way," said UConn point guard Khalid El-Amin. "Not to be the best coach never to make it to the Final Four, but the right way, with a Final Four."

At the buzzer, emotions came pouring out, tears free-flowing from both teams. Calhoun pumped his fist firmly and then shared a bear hug with associate head coach Dave Leitao, whose association with Calhoun dates to 1978 and Leitao's playing days at Northeastern. Calhoun said even back then the two dreamed about someday reaching the Final Four.

While Connecticut's players wept and hugged and fell all over themselves, Gonzaga's gritty group cried, too. They huddled at midcourt in a sort of salute to themselves, and then headed for their locker room for more of the sadness.

The 10th-seeded Zags had come oh-so-close to becoming the first double-digit seed to reach the Final Four since 11th-seeded Louisiana State made it in 1986, and they were very nearly the first West Coast Conference team to get to season's final weekend since USF made it 42 years ago.

"We were right there, we had a chance," said Casey Calvary, the last-shot hero two days earlier in getting Gonzaga to the round of eight with a one-point victory over Florida.

There had been some thought coming in that UConn would provide a definitive end to the Zags' feel-good jaunt into the deeper parts of the tournament; that the Huskies had simply too much talent, depth and speed for Gonzaga to compete with.

That was not the case. The Zags did exactly what they wanted to do, controlling the tempo by playing lots of zone defense, breaking the Huskies' press easily and often enough early that UConn called off the dogs within the first 10 minutes, and going to their unsung post players with success.

Gonzaga also benefited when El-Amin picked up his second foul in the first five minutes of the game and had to watch the rest of the first half from the bench.

Aside from the ultimate result (that's a big aside), El-Amin had a rough afternoon. He missed all 12 of his field-goal attempts, and it was his mishandling of a pass with fewer than two minutes remaining that nearly turned things upside down for the Huskies. But Gonzaga's Matt Santangelo - who himself had an off day to the tune of 1-of-9 shooting and an ugly, off-balance, ill-advised two-point try with 10 seconds remaining and the Zags trailing by three - missed the front end of a one-and-one situation a few seconds later.

Santangelo and the team's other sharpshooter, Richie Frahm, were a combined 3-for-20 overall and just 1-for-11 on 3-pointers.

"They did a tremendous job defensively," Gonzaga coach Dan Monson said of UConn. "The toughest thing was even if you ran a play, their quickness back to recovery was just so good."

While Santangelo and Frahm struggled with their respective shots, UConn's Richard Hamilton did not. Gonzaga just couldn't stop the All-American forward, who wound up with a game-high 21 points, several of which came at key moments.

"He was the reason we couldn't play man-to-man," Monson conceded.

Eventually the Zags paid for playing zone. They had been one of the better rebounding teams in tournament coming in, but zone defenses generally create more offensive-rebound opportunities for opponents. UConn buried Gonzaga on the boards in the second half, snagging 13 offensive rebounds and getting huge second-chance baskets from Kevin Freeman, Edmund Saunders and Jake Voskuhl.

"The problem is, when you zone against a team with athletes like that, they're just piranhas on the boards," Monson said. "We ended up paying the price on that at the end of the game." &lt;